This isn’t the end of the Quarterly Review — it wraps up on Monday — but it is the end of the week, and I’m ready for it. The music’s been good though and that’s something of a salvation for times where it seems like the strange and terrifying are in competition with each other to make life more awful. That doesn’t end on the weekend, of course, but at least I’ll have two days to put together the last post of this QR, and when you’ve been writing 10 reviews a day all week, half that counts as respite. Something like it, anyhow.

So before we wrap up the week with whatever on earth I’ll actually pick to close it out (any requests?), here’s one more batch, with my thanks for your valuable time and attention. Hope you find something cool.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

P+A+G+E+S, No More Can Be Done

No More Can Be Done is the debut album from South Africa’s P+A+G+E+S, but the Cape Town trio spent five years in the 2010s together as Morning Pages, so that their first record would hold so much intention behind it shouldn’t necessarily be a shocker. The reason behind the name change? An apparent change in their project, which is to say the band got way, way darker, way, way heavier and nasty in that sharp-toothed-thing-you-can’t-see-but-you-know-is-there-also-there-are-no-lights kind of way. The 15-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “The Passage” leads the way down into the bleak, extreme sludge that follows, but as the careful linear build of “Shine On” later demonstrates, P+A+G+E+S are more methodical than the noise and outwardly chaotic feel would seem to indicate. Atmosphere plays a central role in what they do, and that’s consistent from their run as Morning Pages, but No More Can Be Done is about what’s lurking and lurching in the bleakness.

P+A+G+E+S Linktr.ee

P+A+G+E+S on Bandcamp

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Bask, The Turning

Following the intro “Chasm,” Bask launch their fourth album, The Turning, with minor-key mystique and subsequent crush via “In the Heat of the Dying Sun” and “The Traveler,” piling triumph upon triumph in a way that is indicative of the progressive songwriting at work. “The Cloth” is slower, but neither less weighted nor less gorgeous for that, and as “Dig My Heels” works in some of the Southern/Americana pastoralism the Asheville, North Carolina, outfit have always been known for, the melody proves a standout, setting up another life-affirming payoff in the seven-minute “Unwound,” the mellower turn for the build of “Long Lost Light” and the somewhat wistfully twanging undertones of the title-track, which closes with grace and poise rare enough in heavy anything. Clearly a band who have worked to and been successful in transcending their root influences, and an identity that’s been hard-forged over their decade-plus. The Turning sees them actively bring their approach to another level.

Bask on Bandcamp

Season of Mist website

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Matus, El Aullido b/w Planetario

A 15-minute two-songer from Lima, Peru’s Matus, as the psychedelic weirdo sometimes-cultists of long standing offer “El Aullido” (8:45) and “Planetario” (6:55) as their first outing since 2021’s Espejismos II (review here). Both processions — and they are that — feel built out from jams, but the recordings have guitarist Manolo Garfias and keyboardist Richard Nossar (both also alternate bass duties) at their core, along with Roberto Soto‘s drumming, Veronik‘s theremin in the deep-freakout section of “Planetario,” Úrsula Inga‘s vocals on “El Aullido,” and so on with other guests (including Camilo Uriarte, who co-produced and mixed, along solo artist Chino Burga on guitar, and Cristóbal Pérez on sax for “Planetario”) adding to the movement. “El Aullido” pairs shoegaze with a roll informed by South American folk, perfect for Inga‘s vocals, while “Planetario” carries more of its melody in the keyboards and surrounding ambience. It’s a welcome check-in from Matus as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band.

Matus on Bandcamp

Matus on Facebook

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November Fire, 2025

Where New England bizarropsych rockers November’s Fire‘s 2024 album, Through a Mournful Song, took an approach to its material like some of earliest Monster Magnet‘s underproduced kitchen-sink quirk, the two-song EP 2025 presents two different faces, and that turns out to be because the songs included are over 30 years old. “2025” and “Somnia” — the latter which brings in original guitarist Greg Brosseau for a guest spot that includes clean lead vocals — were allegedly written in the early 1990s, and if you told me the root of the title-track was a teenaged thrash riff, they make that easy enough to believe in the modernized, thickened chug of the song as it stands now. That is to say, they’ve brought it into the sludgy experimentalist context of the work now, but it remains dark. As it inevitably would. “Somnia” is shorter, has some backing chants, and feels meditative even as the guitar holds to its restlessness. Weird band staying weird, screwing around with their old stuff and getting something out of it. Sometimes an experiment works.

November Fire Linktr.ee

November Fire on Bandcamp

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Goatmilker, Goatmilker

Bergen, Norway, four-piece Goatmilker don’t really leave you with much choice other than to call them progressive, though that hardly says boo about the reach of their self-titled debut, which is as much psychedelic punk as it is black metal in its rhythms, but remains a work of heavy rock and roll nonetheless, grooving, catchy on “Devils on My Tail,” aggro-weird on “Time… Tearing Apart,” all-in on tonal overwhelm for “Mountains” and cheekily grandiose in the finale “Storm” only after they’ve seen fit to take on Journey‘s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” which given the goes-where-it-wants succession leading up to it hardly feels out of place at all. While at no risk of overstaying its welcome at eight songs and 34 minutes, Goatmilker does make for a challenging listen at times, but the rewards for actually paying attention to what they’re doing are worth whatever effort is required. That is to say, engage actively for best results.

Goatmilker Linktr.ee

Goatmilker on Instagram

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Grin, Incantation

If Grin sound a little different on Incantation, a two-track 7″ with a digital bonus cut in the flatteningly heavy “Echoes in the Static,” that might be because the duo of drummer/vocalist Jan Oberg and bassist Sabine Oberg didn’t record themselves as usual, but instead tracked live at Wave Akademie in their native Berlin with Anton Urban (Jan Oberg co-produced, mixed and mastered, so still had a hand for sure). So, rather than the studio leftovers one might expect mere months after the band’s last full-length, Acid Gods (review here), the songs may have their origins as such but arise from different circumstances. There’s some more of a wash to “Incantation” and “The Color of Ghosts,” and “Echoes in the Static” is consumed by its titular noise toward its finish, but “The Color of Ghosts” dares some melodic vocals amid all that bombast, and as usual, Grin forge their own take on metal, sludge and intense atmospheric heavy.

Grin on Bandcamp

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

—

Mezzoa, TON 618

A collection of bangers on the second LP through Glory or Death Records from San Diego rockers Mezzoa, TON 618 plays out over the course of a taut 13 songs and 39 minutes, careening desert style in “Hard to Hear,” punking up the groove in “Chump” before basking in Sabbath worship for “Wasted Universe” (think “Symptom” thereof), building crunching tension in “Uncle Cho” only to release it in the second half of the song with a grunge melody, carrying that melody into “Smiles for Everyone,” and then slamming all that momentum into the fuzzed radness of the lead tone and Alice in Chainsy vocal of “How You Been.” That’s not the end, I’m just less efficient than the band and so I’m running out of space. “Blessing” attains inner Nirvana while “Desert Snakes” sounds like it’s ready for a John Garcia guest spot, “Chachi Liberachi” echoes the sharper corners of “Wasted Universe,” “Goin’ Down” has that riff that every New York hardcore song ever (yes, all of them. don’t @ me.) has but goes somewhere completely different with it, and closer “How Are We” highlights the craft that’s let them do it all in the first place. Hey kid, you like rock music? Well get a load of this.

Mezzoa on Bandcamp

Glory or Death Records website

—

Orsak:Oslo, Silt and Static

Beginning with its longest track in the nine-minute “Biting In,” Orsak:Oslo‘s Silt and Static finds the Norwegian/Swedish outfit somewhat outgrown from their dronier foundations, harnessing a psychedelia that moves with krautrocking purposes, while retaining the band’s previously-established ambient instrumentalist approach. “Days Adrift” is an even thicker roll, with ebbs and flows that give precedent to the shove that results in “Salt Stains,” which follows, while “Petals” dips momentarily into minimalism. But the story here is the fullness of sound, with pieces like the subdued-but-building “Resonance in Ash” or “Petals” in conversation with Pelican/Russian Circles-style heavy, while “The Onward Stride” and “Time Leak” bring prog more to the forefront and “Bread and Sink” lets the rumble bring it all together. In these ways, Silt and Static rewrites the story of Orsak:Oslo as a band, and their reach has never seemed so broad.

Orsak:Oslo website

Vinter Records website

—

Modder, Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun

The hypnotic drone finish of “Type 27” that ends side A of Modder‘s second album, Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun, is just one way the band incorporate ambience as a key element in their trades between loud and quiet, tense and open, and crushing and spacious. These different sides come together in various combinations across the six cuts on the Belgian instrumentalist five-piece’s 41-minute run, which sets out in oppressive and blasting fashion with “Stone Eternal,” as heavy as whatever doom you want to put it next to and still able to hit with the precision of Gojira. The shorter “Mather” is more angular, glitchy and mirrored by “Chaoism” on the album’s second half, and though they lead off with their longest track (immediate points) in “Stone Eternal,” the heavy djenty chug that comes to fruition on “In the Sun” is unmistakable as anything but the closer, building, receding, tossing in what sure sounds like a human voice chanting and surging in intensity to round out with a keyboard-overlaid bludgeoning. By then you’re pretty much pulp anyway.

Modder Linktr.ee

Lay Bare Recordings website

Consouling Sounds store

—

Futuredrugs, Past Warnings of Present Futures

Past Warnings of Present Futures tells you a lot about its point of view in the title, but electronic experimentalists Futuredrugs push the meaning deeper still, opening with a barely recognizable take on “What a Wonderful World” with “Skies of Blue” and revamping Tom Waits‘ “Dirt in the Ground” on “…And the Gallows Groaned.” The cinematic, dark synth/programmed backdrop of these and the sampled “No Home” blur the line between originality and reinterpretation/manipulation, and I won’t claim to know whether pieces like “Ice Age Coming” or “When the Last Tree Falls” are similarly sourced, but maybe. In any case, in a time when remembering things like “nothing matters anyway” is a comfort, there is space for the open-minded listener to dwell among these seven tracks, which when taken as a whole succeed in embodying the apocalyptic hellscape of recent years. I don’t know if they’re offering sanctuary so much as a snapshot, but as that, it sure feels like an accurate depiction.

Futuredrugs on Bandcamp

Futuredrugs on Instagram

—

If the notion of Author and Punisher putting out a record themed around birds seems counterintuitive, fair enough. Nocturnal Birding wasn’t on my Bingo card either. In 2022, the San Diego-based, mostly-solo outfit of auteur and machinist Tristan Shone released Krüller (review here), which was a consuming soundtrack for the apocalypse humanity had just lived through in the years immediately preceding, and not only the lyrics, but the feel of the production seemed to embody a sci-fi analog for the times. Obviously the mission across the eight-song/34-minute Nocturnal Birding is different, and well it should be.

Each track represents a species — the exception is “Titmouse” and its pluralized counterpart “Titmice,” which follows — and while “Meadowlark” feels like a departure in some ways, it functions across its four and a half minutes not unlike Krüller opener “Drone Carrying Dread,” establishing the atmospheric backdrop against which the album will take place. Here, that involves birdsong. Some of it is manipulated digitally as one might expect, some of it echoes over imaginary canyons, but it is one of a few threads running throughout Nocturnal Birding, and it starts early over the first, clean-sung two minutes of “Meadowlark,” from which the lead cut transitions to the hard-chugging guitar that — guess what — is another thread.

In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote a bio for Nocturnal Birding and as part of that spoke with Shone about his experiences in volunteer groups near the Mexican border, handing out water bottles to migrants and helping people in the hyperspecific ways that wouldn’t also get him arrested by a government that consistently seems to get off most on its own cruelty. Those times, outdoors, at night, hearing the birds, inform not only the lyrics — handwritten in the album’s liner notes — and themes of “Meadowlark,” the closer “Thrush,” and other pieces, but they underline the core message of the work on a meta-level as well, which is that no one is coming to save you. There is no Jesus on the way, no white knights to come make things ‘right,’ whatever that even means in an era that’s nullified and commoditized truth, and the only way we get through is together. Collaboration.

This is shown not only in “Mute Swan,” where Megan Osztrosits of Couch Slut adds vocals, or “Titanis” where Indonesia’s Kuntari contribute live drums, or “Black Storm Petrel,” which was written together with French industrialists Fange, but in the deepening of the collaboration between Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick (also of Ecstatic Vision, A Life Once Lost, Plaque Marks, etc.). The latter joined Shone in the wake of the last record to help bring that material to life onstage, and in addition to the head-spinning leads in the second half of “Titmouse,” his stamp can be heard in throughout the LP, whether it’s following the rolling procession of “Titanis” or in a more forward role, casting notes into the bleak ether about a minute into “Black Storm Petrel” or setting the bed of drone that becomes the undulating riff of “Rook,” penultimate to “Thrush,” where an omegachug bookends with “Meadowlark” righteously.

The expression of togetherness — which is to say nothing of breaking with the expectation of Author and Punisher as being a solo-project, even if Shone‘s still driving the songwriting — further extends to the construction of the album itself. While not at all devoid of ambience, whether that’s the soon-contrasted minimalism that opens to such breadth in “Thrush” or the echoing, otherworldly birds at the outset of “Mute Swan” joined by high-end wubs as it begins moving toward its also-clean-sung culmination, the airy aftermath in the end of “Titanis,” etc., this collection of songs was very clearly composed with the live presentation considered. To put numbers to that, Krüller had two tracks under five minutes long; Nocturnal Birding has seven. The shorter they are, the more you can play live, and the more generally direct they’ll be perceived as being. This puts Nocturnal Birding more in line with 2018’s Relapse Records label debut, Beastland (discussed here), but the context is different in sound and concept. The lessons of Krüller haven’t been forgotten so much as refined as part of an ongoing creative evolution.

Physical presence becomes important, the physicality of the songs, whether that’s Shone and Sabolick working through ideas together or the audience in front of the stage waiting to be flattened by the results. Author and Punisher remain largely in an echelon of their own when it comes to conveying aural weight in industrial music. The ‘kick drum’ alone in “Black Storm Petrel” conveys this superlative heft, as one layer goes to 16th notes — double-kick — and that core thud remains in place underneath, a punctuation unto itself. It grounds the angularity of “Titmice,” which tempo-wise moves away from the lurch in “Titanis,” and amid the stuttered verse hooks of “Mute Swan” and the cacophony that backs the arrival of Osztrosits‘ spoken part, it remains central to the movement of the piece. Complemented by the higher-register synth in the last crescendo of “Thrush,” it is another element tying the work together. A crucial difference is the corresponding prominence of the guitar.

Godflesh have always been a touchstone for industrial metal anything, and especially with the increased focus on live, by-human guitar, that lineage can be heard in “Rook,” the extreme-feeling middle of “Black Storm Petrel” and the way “Meadowlark” makes the riff the basis of its final build. But more than 20 years on from Shone‘s outset with the project, Nocturnal Birding finds Author and Punisher less beholden to aggression even in some of the outright nastiest stretches. “Meadowlark” is fierce and yells into the void with barking vocals up front as it resolves, but in the conclusions of “Mute Swan” and “Titmice,” leading into the apex of “Rook” and the Steve Von Till-esque beginning of “Thrush,” Shone sings soulfully and with no less striking a presence than one finds in the harshest, noisiest reaches of “Black Storm Petrel.”

Perhaps, then, the ultimate message of Nocturnal Birding is that as much as Author and Punisher have a core, identifiable sound, no two records issued under the moniker have ever been the same, and that the progression of craft has led Shone (and now Sabolick) to a place where notions of breadth and pinpointed impact can combine. “Thrush” is the longest inclusion on the album at 5:49, and sets forth mournfully into the slow churn of its first half, with maybe too much longing for it to have opened, but an apparent answer to “Meadowlark” just the same. And like the opener, it grows fiercer with the guitar, transitions via birdsong and shifts into a finish that feels like a summary of the album as a whole; complete in ways that go beyond just bringing back the earlier movement after the chug and building it out to end.

Between the themes, worldmaking, continued development of sound and complexity of the songs, Nocturnal Birding isn’t lacking for ‘stuff going on’ at any point. It is a testament to Shone and Sabolick on a compositional level that it’s also engaging in a way that music so outwardly bludgeoning rarely is. The mix is vast and there is room for you in it, should you also want to be a part of the collaboration just through the experience of listening. In doing so, one might even find comfort of a kind, as well as catharsis.

Author & Punisher, “Titanis” official video

Author & Punisher, “Thrush” official video

Author & Punisher, Nocturnal Birding (2025)

Author & Punisher website

Author & Punisher on Bandcamp

Author & Punisher on Instagram

Author & Punisher on Facebook

Relapse Records website

Relapse Records on Bandcamp

Relapse Records on Instagram

Relapse Records on Facebook

I’ve been waiting for this announcement. I was asked a couple months ago to write the bio for the upcoming Author and Punisher album, Nocturnal Birding, because somebody out there liked my review of the San Diego industrialist’s 2022 album, Krüller (review here). Had a chat (my first) with A&P auteur Tristan Shone for it and everything, talking about the album’s themes of immigration, the natural world, human cruelty, and so on. Turned in a draft that was a little more out there and was met with a fervent “meh.” Turned in a second draft and looks like part of it is used below, so I guess my last couple weeks of feeling like I’d outright failed at the project were premature. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised in this manner, if it’s one or the other.

All of this, however, is just to tell you that I’ve gotten to be fairly familiar with Nocturnal Birding, which packs theme upon theme while at the same time absolutely burying you with the heaviest audio you’ve heard since, let’s say, Krüller, and that it’s a contender in my mind for album of the year. Shone, working in closer collaboration with guitarist Doug Sabolick, has tightened the songs with live presentation as the ideal, and they hit more directly accordingly, without giving up the atmospheric flourish that made the last record feel like so much of a world.

I have more to say and will say it in due time. The following came down the PR wire today. For my own future reference, my portion starts with “After celebrating 20 years…” and ends at, “…mechanized sounds,” which was a fun interplay for me to point out on this one because I was on an album earlier this year that did the same thing. Go figure.

From the PR wire:

AUTHOR & PUNISHER: Announces New Full-Length Nocturnal Birding Out October 3, 2025

Shares “Titanis” Music VIdeo (ft. Kuntari)

EU Nocturnal Birding Tour Through Oct / Nov 2025

US Record Release Shows Nov 12 + 13 in California

PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE / WATCH: https://orcd.co/authorandpunisher

After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding.

TRISTAN SHONE comments on the new album:

“When I sat down to start writing this album, I knew I wanted to make songs based on birdsong. The actual first guitar riff is one of the meadowlark’s songs. When you listen to ‘Rook,’ that melody is the rook’s sound. That track is us mimicking one of the rooks’ many songs. I wrote all my tracks around the rhythms and melodies of birds I researched or heard in the wild.”

Today, AUTHOR & PUNISHER shares the official video for Nocturnal Birding’s lead single “Titanis”. The video was filmed this past Summer in Bali, Indonesia live with Kuntari who performed on the studio recording of “Titanis”. Directed by Manda Selena and Ican Harem.

Watch on the Relapse YouTube Channel HERE.

Kuntari comment on the creation of the “Titanis” video:

“its hard to imagine the organic local sequence from us blend with monstrous industrial sound from Tristan. After many hours of discussion we instantly clicked and agreed where the song ended up. The results are beyond our imagination, Tristan easily fluids into fresh territory and we don’t have a border to break to. By far this is one of the most awe inspiring experience for us, not to mention our video production which is insanely epic and hilarious at the same time. The most memorable moment is we share a good laugh along the process”

Nocturnal Birding is out October 3, 2025 on LP/CD/Streaming via Relapse Records.

Pre-Order via Relapse.com HERE: https://www.relapse.com/pages/author-punisher-nocturnal-birding

Pre-Save / Listen HERE: https://orcd.co/authorandpunisher

Tracklisting:
1. Meadowlark
2. Titanis (ft. Kuntari) 03:01
3. Mute Swan (ft. Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut)
4. Black Storm Petrel (ft. Fange)
5. Titmouse
6. Titmice
7. Rook
8. Thrush

After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding.

In addition to the strong and poignant messaging contained throughout the music, lyrics and artwork, Nocturnal Birding sees Tristan Shone synergizing with an array of artists from across the globe like never before in his career. From the artwork, meticulously designed by French artist Lucile Lejoly (Chat Pile, Roadburn Festival) to the mixing and mastering by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Heriot, Body Count, Machine Head) to the musical guest appearances from France’s Fange, Indonesia’s Kuntari, and New York City’s Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut, these outer creative inputs shine throughout the work.

Shone has welcomed collaborators in the past, but guitarist Doug Sabolick (Ecstatic Vision, Plaque Marks, A Life Once Lost, etc.) is the first genuine bandmate in AUTHOR & PUNISHER contributing creatively on guitar in ways that shape the persona of Nocturnal Birding, complementing Shone in melody and wrought tonal heft.

Removing himself from an artistic comfort zone proved fruitful inspiration. There is literal birdsong all over Nocturnal Birding, and transposing those melodies and rhythms to guitar became the root of the material, representing a rare coming together of the natural world and mechanized sounds.

Author & Punisher announce their Europe 2025 Tour, with Bong-Ra on select shows! Find all confirmed dates below.

Tickets are on sale now at AuthorandPunisher.com.

18/10/2025 – Lisbon (PT) – Amplifest #
20/10/2025 – Madrid (SP) #
21/10/2025 – Barcelona (SP)
22/10/2025 – Marseille (FR)
23/10/2025 – Montpellier (FR)
24/10/2025 – Nilvange (FR) %
25/10/2025 – Maastricht (NL) – Samhain
26/10/2025 – Hamburg (DE)*
27/10/2025 – Aarhus (DK)*
28/10/2025 – Oslo (NO)*
29/10/2025 – Goteborg (SE)*
30/10/2025 – Copenhagen (DK)*
31/10/2025 – Berlin (DE)*
01/11/2025 – Gdansk (PL)*
02/11/2025 – Warsaw (PL)*
03/11/2025 – Poznan (PL)*
04/11/2025 – Leipzig (DE)*
05/11/2025 – Frankfurt (DE)*
06/11/2025 – Paris (FR)*
07/11/2025 – Bruxelles (BE)*
08/11/2025 – Lille (FR)*
09/11/2025 – Manchester (UK) – Damnation Festival

http://www.authorandpunisher.com/
https://authorandpunisher.bandcamp.com/
http://instagram.com/authorandpunisher
http://facebook.com/authorandpunisher

http://www.relapse.com
https://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.instagram.com/relapserecords
http://www.facebook.com/RelapseRecords

Author & Punisher, “Titanis” official video

Author & Punisher, Nocturnal Birding (2025)

Author and Punisher were in the studio putting together a new record and this week are out in the Western part of the US doing shows with Pig Destroyer and Cephalic Carnage, which is like Relapse Records powerhouse lineup. I don’t know when the band’s next release might be out, but if you were the type to see a list of tour dates like this and wonder what might be the impetus for a project spending the better part of a month on the road in foreign lands, supporting a release doesn’t seem like the least reasonable possibility. I know (almost) nothing about it, so don’t quote me.

Venues aren’t listed below, but at least some of the festivals the duo of Tristan Shone and Doug Sabolick will be hitting are, including Amplifest in Portugal and Damnation in the UK, Samhain in the Netherlands and probably more to be added, though as October turns into November, it’s less a-fest-every-weekend, Damnation notwithstanding.

They’ll be out with the experimentalist Bong-Ra, aka Jason Köhnen of Celestial Season, The Answer Lies in the Black Void, The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation and a slew of others, and if there’s the chance of a collaboration there, that would be one to hear.

Dates follow, tickets are on sale now:

Author & Punisher announce their Europe 2025 Tour, with Bong-Ra on select shows! Find all confirmed dates below.

Tickets are on sale now at AuthorandPunisher.com.

The band states: “Armed with machines of both love and sonic disembowelment, we embark to spread our wings across western fields and shores, selling wares and spitting truths. Come all and share our wine, bread and vice.”

18/10/2025 – Lisbon (PT) – Amplifest #
20/10/2025 – Madrid (SP) #
21/10/2025 – Barcelona (SP)
22/10/2025 – Marseille (FR)
23/10/2025 – Montpellier (FR)
24/10/2025 – Nilvange (FR) %
25/10/2025 – Maastricht (NL) – Samhain
26/10/2025 – Hamburg (DE)*
27/10/2025 – Aarhus (DK)*
28/10/2025 – Oslo (NO)*
29/10/2025 – Goteborg (SE)*
30/10/2025 – Copenhagen (DK)*
31/10/2025 – Berlin (DE)*
01/11/2025 – Gdansk (PL)*
02/11/2025 – Warsaw (PL)*
03/11/2025 – Poznan (PL)*
04/11/2025 – Leipzig (DE)*
05/11/2025 – Frankfurt (DE)*
06/11/2025 – Paris (FR)*
07/11/2025 – Bruxelles (BE)*
08/11/2025 – Lille (FR)*
09/11/2025 – Manchester (UK) – Damnation Festival

http://www.authorandpunisher.com/
https://authorandpunisher.bandcamp.com/
http://instagram.com/authorandpunisher
http://facebook.com/authorandpunisher

http://www.relapse.com
https://relapserecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.instagram.com/relapserecords
http://www.facebook.com/RelapseRecords

Author & Punisher, Krüller (2022)

Cali psych-shred lords Earthless will spend the first half of August on tour in Europe for festivals and such — look up Palp if you haven’t; jaw-dropping — and as September brings in the Australian Springtime, they’ll head down under for a stretch of six shows wrapping at Blacken Festival on Sept. 20 in Alice Springs. They’ve got some off-days there, and one can’t help but be curious if guitarist Isaiah Mitchell might team up with Seedy Jeezus — whose Lex Wattereus handled the poster below — for another Tranquonauts jam, perhaps to be released sometime in the next few years to follow later-2024’s 2 (review here). Not holding my breath, not privy to insider info, just a thing that would be cool that could potentially happen next to another cool thing that already is happening — i.e. the tour.

Of course, Earthless have been hither and yon, back and forth to Europe since their 2022 album, Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (review here), came out on Nuclear Blast. As the bulk of their impact has always been on-stage — no, I have nothing against Earthless records; calm down — this is only appropriate. The European run will see them celebrating the 20th anniversary of 2005’s Sonic Prayer, their first album. As good an occasion as any, but really, the point is once you see Earthless on stage, you understand the band in a different way, and I guess maybe I’m speaking to anybody who hasn’t and maybe doesn’t see the impact they’ve had and what they’re able to tap into musically, but in their own or any other generation of rockers you’d want to place them, they are something special.

From socials:

We are beyond stoked to be returning to the beautiful land of Australia this coming September 2025!! Australia is a home away from home for the band and any opportunity we get to play there is a massive honor. Thank you for all the love and support through the years!! We’re really looking forward to seeing you at the shows!! Tickets are on sale now: https://www.earthlessofficial.com/tour-dates OR https://davidroywilliams.com/

AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2025
10 Sept – Brisbane – Crowbar Brisbane
11 Sept – Sydney – Crowbar Sydney
12 Sept – Melbourne – Corner Hotel
13 Sept – Castlemaine – Theatre Royal Castlemaine
14 Sept – Geelong – The Barwon Club Hotel
20 Sept – Alice Springs – BLACKEN OPEN AIR
Poster by Lex Waterreus 🤯

EUROPE SUMMER 2025
TICKETS: www.earthlessofficial.com/tour-dates
2 August – Milan IT – MAGNOLIA STONE FESTIVAL
3 August – Bagnes CH – PALP festival
5 August – Barcelona ES – Sala Upload Barcelona *
6 August – Portugalete ES – Groove *
7 August – Ancora PT – SonicBlast Fest
8 August – Madrid ES – Nazca Madrid *
10 August – Kortrijk BE – ALCATRAZ MUSIC
11 August – Breda NL – MEZZ
12 August – Dortmund DE – Musiktheater Piano
13 August – Berlin DE – Neue Zukunft
14 August – Hamburg DE – Knust Hamburg
15 August – København DK – Spillestedet Stengade
*: Heavy Trip (Canada) supporting

EARTHLESS Lineup:
Isaiah Mitchell – Guitar & Vocals
Mike Eginton – Bass
Mario Rubalcaba – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/earthlessrips
www.instagram.com/earthlessrips
https://earthless.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.earthlessofficial.com/

https://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
http://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/shop/index.html

Earthless, Night Parade of 100 Demons (2022)

Day three. Yesterday had its challenges as regards timing, but ultimately I wound up where I wanted to be, which is finished with the writing. Fingers crossed I’m so lucky today. Last time around I hit into a groove pretty early and the days kind of flew, so I’m due a Quarterly Review where it’s a little more pulling teeth to make sentences happen. I’m doing my best either way. That’s it. That’s the update. Let’s go Wednesday.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Godzillionaire, Diminishing Returns

Tell you what. Instead of pretending I knew Godzillionaire at all before this record came along or that I had any prior familiarity with frontman Mark Hennessy‘s ’90s-era outfit Paw — unlike everything else I’ve seen written about the band — I’ll admit to going into Diminishing Returns relatively blind. And somehow it’s still nostalgic? With its heart on its sleeve and one foot in we’re-all-definitely-over-all-that-shit-from-our-20s-by-now-right-guys poetic moodiness, the Lawrence, Kansas, four-piece veer between the atmospherics of “Spin Up Spin Down” and more grounded grooves like that of “Boogie Johnson” or “3rd Street Shuffle.” “Unsustainable” dares post-rock textures and an electronic beat, “Astrogarden” has a chug imported from 1994 and the seven-minutes-each capstone pair “Common Board, Magic Nail,” which does a bit of living in its own head, and “Shadow of a Mountain,” which has a build but isn’t a blowout, reward patient listens. I guess if you were there in the ’90s, it’s god-tier heavy underground hype. From where I sit, it’s pretty solid anyhow.

Godzillionaire website

Ripple Music website

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Time Rift, In Flight

In Flight is the second full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Time Rift, and it brings the revamped trio lineup of vocalist Domino Monet, founding guitarist Justin Kaye and drummer Terrica Catwood to a place between classic heavy rock and classic metal, colliding ’70s groove and declarative ’80s NWOBHM riffing — advance single “The Hunter” strikes with a particularly Mob Rulesian tone, but it’s relatable to a swath of non-sucky metal of the age — such that “Follow Tomorrow” finds a niche that sounds familiar in its obscurity. They’re not ultimately rewriting any playbooks stylistically, but the balance of the production highlights the organic foundation without coming across like a put-on, and the performances thrive in that. Sometimes you want some rock and roll. Time Rift brought plenty for everyone.

Time Rift on Bandcamp

Dying Victims Productions website

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Heavy Trip, Liquid Planet

Canadian instrumentalist trio Heavy Trip released their sophomore LP, Liquid Planet, in Nov. 2024, following on from 2020’s Burning World-issued self-titled debut (review here). A 13-minute title-track serves as opener and longest inclusion (immediate points), setting a high standrad for scorch that the pulls and shred of “Silversun,” the rush and roll of “Astrononaut” (sic) and capper “Mudd Red Moon” with its maybe-just-wah-all-the-time push and noisy comedown ending, righteously answer. It’s easy enough on its face to cite Earthless as an influence — instrumental band with ace guitarist throwing down a gauntlet for 40 minutes; they’re also touring Europe together — but Heavy Trip follow a trajectory of their own within the four songs and are less likely to dwell in a part, as the movement within “Astrononaut” shows plainly. I won’t be surprised when their next one comes with label backing.

Heavy Trip website

Heavy Trip on Bandcamp

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Slung, In Ways

An impressive debut from UK four-piece Slung, whose provenance I don’t know but who sound like they’ve been at it for a while and have come into their first album, In Ways, with clarity of what they want in terms of sound and songwriting. “Laughter” opens raucous, and “Class A Cherry” follows with a sleeker slower roll, while “Come Apart” pushes even further into loud/quiet trades for a soaring chorus and “Collider” pays off its early low-end tension with a melodic hook that feels so much bigger than what one might find in a three-minute song. It goes like that: one cut after another, for 11 songs and 37 minutes, with Slung skillfully guiding the listener from the front of the record to the back. The going can be intense, like “Matador” or the crashing “Thinking About It,” more contemplative like “Limassol” and “Heavy Duty,” and there’s even room for a title-track interlude before the somewhat melancholic “Nothing Left” and “Falling Down” close, though that might only be because Slung use their time so well.

Slung website

Slung on Bandcamp

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Greengoat, Aloft

Madrid-based progressive heavy rockers Greengoat return on a quick turnaround from 2024’s A.I. (review here) to Aloft, which over 33 minutes plays through seven songs each of which has been given a proper name: the album intro is “Zohar,” it moves into the grey-toned tension of “Betty,” “Jim” is moody, “Barney” takes it for a walk, and so on. The big-riffed centerpiece “Travis” is a highlight slog, and “Ariel,” which follows, is thoughtful in its melody and deceptively nuanced in the underlying rhythm. That’s kind of how Greengoat do. They’ve taken their influences — and in the case of closer “Charles,” that includes black metal — and internalized them toward their own methodologies, and as such, Aloft feels all the more individually constructed. Hail Iberia as Western Europe’s most undervalued heavy hotspot.

Greengoat website

Argonauta Records website

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Author & Punisher, Body Dome Light

If it seems a little on the nose for Author & Punisher, modern industrial music’s most doom-tinged purveyor, to cover Godflesh, who helped set the style in motion in the first place, yeah, it definitely is. That accounts for the reverence with which Tristan Shone treats the track that originally appeared on 1994’s Selfless LP, and maybe is part of why the song’s apparently been sitting for 11 years since it was recorded in 2014. Accordingly, if some of the sounds remind of 2015’s Melk en Honig (discussed here), the era might account for that. In Shone‘s interpretation, though, the defeated vocal of Justin K. Broadrick becomes a more aggressive rasp and the guitar is transposed to synth. One advantage to living in the age of content-creation is stuff like this gets released at all, let alone posted so you can stream or download as you will. Get it now so when it shows up on the off-album-tracks compilation later you can roll your eyes and be extra cool.

Author & Punisher website

Relapse Records website

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Children of the Sün, Leaving Ground, Greet the End

It’s gotta be a trap, right? The third full-length from Arvika, Sweden, heavy-hippie folk-informed psychedelic rockers Children of the Sün can’t really be this sweet, right? The soaring “Lilium?” The mellow, lap-steel-included motion in “Come With Us?” The fact that they stonerfy “Whole Lotta Love?” Yeah, no way. I know how this goes. You show up and the band are like, “Hey everything’s cool, check out this better universe we just made” and then the next thing you know the floor drops out and you’re doing manual labor on some Swedish farm to align yourself with some purported oneness. I hear you, “Starlighter.” You’re gorgeous and one of many vivid temptations on Leaving Ground, Greet the End, but you’ll not take my soul on your outbound journey through the melodic cosmos. I’m just gonna stay here and be miserable and there’s nothing you or that shiver-down-the-spine backing vocal in “Lovely Eyes” can do about it. So there.

Children of the Sün on Instagram

Children of the Sün on Bandcamp

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Pothamus, Abur

While the core math at work in Pothamus‘ craft in terms of bringing together crushing, claustrophobic tonality, aggressive purposes and expansive atmospherics isn’t necessarily new for a post-metallic playbook, but the melodies that the Belgian trio keep in their pocket for an occasion like “De-Varium” or the drone-folk “Ykavus” before they find another layer of breadth in the 15-minute closing title-track are no less engrossing across the subdued stretches within the six songs of Abur than the band are consuming at their heaviest, and the percussion in the early build of the finale says it better than I could, calling back to the ritualism of opener “Zhikarta” and the way it seems to unfold another layer of payoff with each measure as it crosses the halfway point, only to end up squeezing itself through a tiny tube of low end and finding freedom on the other side in a flood of drone, the entire album playing out its 46 minutes not like parts of a single song, but vivid in the intention of creating a wholeness that is very much manifest in its catharsis.

Pothamus on Bandcamp

Pelagic Records website

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Gentle Beast, Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier (…From Outer Space)

Gentle Beast are making stoner rock for stoner rockers, if the cumbersome title Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier (…From Outer Space) of the Swiss five-piece’s sophomore LP didn’t already let you know, and from the desert-careening of “Planet Drifter” through the Om-style meditation of “Riding Waves of Karma” (bonus points for digeridoo) ahead of the janga-janga verse and killer chorus of “Revenge of the Buffalo,” they’re not shy about highlighting the point. There’s a spoken part in the early going of “Voodoo Hoodoo Space Machine” that seems to be setting up a narrative, and the organ-laced ending of “Witch of the Mountain” certainly could be seen as a chapter of that unfolding story, but I can’t help but feel like I’m thinking too hard. Go with the riffs, because for sure the riffs are going. Gentle Beast hit pretty hard, counter to the name, and that gives Vampire Witch etc. etc. an outwardly aggressive face, but nobody’s actually getting punched here, they’re just loud having a good time. You can too.

Gentle Beast website

Sixteentimes Music website

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Acid Magus, Scatterling Empire

Metal and psychedelia rarely interact with such fluidity, but South Africa’s Acid Magus have found a sweet spot where they can lead a record off with a seven-minute onslaught like “War” and still prog out four minutes later on “Incantations” just because both sound so much in their wheelhouse. In addition, the fullness of their tones and modern production style, the way post-hardcore underlines both the nod later in “Wytch” and the shoving apex of “Emperor” is a unifying factor, while the bright-guitar interludes “Ascendancy” and “Absolution” broaden the palette further and contrast the darker exploration of “Citadel” and the finale “Haven,” which provides a fittingly huge and ceremonious culmination to Scatterling Empire‘s sense of space. It’s almost too perfect in terms of the mix and the balance of the arrangements, but when it hits into a more aggressive moment, they sound organic in holding it together. Acid Magus have actively worked to develop their approach. It’s hard to see the quality of these songs as anything other than reward for that effort.

Acid Magus on Bandcamp

Mongrel Records website

—

Ah, Sacri Monti, summering in Europe once again. By my count this upcoming run — which looks like a banger with stops at Freak Valley (see you there), Pamouss Festival, Rock in Bourlon, Stoned From the Underground and Red Smoke finishing in Poland — will be at least the sixth time the five-piece have gone abroad to tour in the decade since their first album came out, and that’s pretty significant even before you get to those asterisked plague years.

The occasion of their return to Euro shores in 2025 is to continue to support last year’s LP, Retrieval (review here), and at this point, a lot of this band’s life has happened on the road. It’s been a few years since I caught them last, but their sound has only grown in that time and the latest record is their finest work to-date, so if you’re in Europe and you’re at this point kind of getting used to having the band around, maybe starting to take them for granted, my advice is don’t.

The following was hoisted from socials:

SACRI MONTI – EUROPE 2025 TOUR

We are proud to announce another European tour this year in support of our latest album ‘Retrieval.’ Looking forward a handful of festivals and club shows in some new and familiar places we’ve been. Tour poster design by the talented @branca_studio Big thanks to @swampbooking for another banger. See you soon Europe….

Europe 2025
20/06/2025 DE Siegen Freak Valley
21/06/2025 NL Tilburg Little Devil
22/06/2025 NL Amsterdam de Tanker in Noord
24/06/2025 IT Sezzadio Cascina Bellaria
25/06/2025 IT Treviso Altroquando
26/06/2025 CH Aarau Kiff
27/06/2025 FR Manigod Namass Pamouss festival
28/06/2025 FR Dijon Tanneries II
29/06/2024 FR Bourlon Rock In Bourlon
03/07/2025 DK Ebsjerg Kulturscenen
04/07/2025 DK Copenhagen Lygtens Kro
05/07/2025 SE Stockholm Geronimo’s FGT
06/07/2025 SE Malmo Plan B
08/07/2025 DE Berlin Neue Zukunft
09/07/2025 AT Vienna Viper Room
10/07/2025 SK Bratislava Žalár
11/07/2025 DE Erfurt Stoned From The Underground
12/07/2025 PL Pleszew Red Smoke Festival

Sacri Monti is:
Brenden Dellar -Guitar
Dylan Donovan- Guitar
Anthony Meier- Bass
Evan Wenskay- Organ, Synth
Thomas Dibenedetto- Drums

https://www.facebook.com/sacrimontiband/
https://www.instagram.com/sacri_monti_band/
https://sacrimonti.bigcartel.com/
https://soundcloud.com/sacri-monti

teepeerecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/
https://www.instagram.com/teepeerecords/
https://teepeerecords.bandcamp.com/

Sacri Monti, Retrieval (2024)

If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Earthless live, certainly a hot Europe in August is as good a time as any. The Cali instrumentalist kingpins are set to appear at Italy’s Magnolia Stone Festival, PALP Fest in the Swiss Alps, SonicBlast Fest in Portugal and Alcatraz Festival in Belgium on an efficient two-week stint presented by Ben Ward of Orange Goblin‘s agency, Route One Booking, as well as Napalm Events. They’ll be joined for the run by Canadian upstarts Heavy Trip, who also this month undertook their first tour of the US East Coast.

Earthless touring, well, yeah, it’s not exactly a surprise when they get out at any point. It’s probably pretty convenient if you’re in a band to be able to basically look anywhere in the world and say, “okay, let’s go here at this time,” and then make it happen, and Earthless aren’t playing stadiums, but among underground heavy of any sort, they’re one of the farthest reaching bands the genre and its infinity of offshoots has to offer. Kicking ass is the least of what they do, and their influence continues to spread as a new generation of heavy psych and heavy anything takes shape in their wake.

Looks like a good time to me:

EARTHLESS – EUROPE SUMMER 2025

HEADS UP! 🌍✈️🔥🤯 We’re returning to Europe this summer! Tickets are on sale now for all dates! Hope to cross paths with many of you on the road…

EUROPE SUMMER 2025
🛸🚀☄️🛸🚀☄️🛸🚀☄️
TICKETS: www.earthlessofficial.com/tour-dates

2 August – Milan IT – MAGNOLIA STONE FESTIVAL
3 August – Bagnes CH – PALP festival
5 August – Barcelona ES – Sala Upload Barcelona *
6 August – Portugalete ES – Groove *
7 August – Ancora PT – SonicBlast Fest
8 August – Madrid ES – Nazca Madrid *
10 August – Kortrijk BE – ALCATRAZ MUSIC
11 August – Breda NL – MEZZ
12 August – Dortmund DE – Musiktheater Piano
13 August – Berlin DE – Neue Zukunft
14 August – Hamburg DE – Knust Hamburg
15 August – København DK – Spillestedet Stengade

*: Heavy Trip (Canada) supporting

Flyer illustration by Mike Eginton
Flyer design by Ake Arndt
EARTHLESS Lineup:
Isaiah Mitchell – Guitar & Vocals
Mike Eginton – Bass
Mario Rubalcaba – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/earthlessrips
www.instagram.com/earthlessrips
https://earthless.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.earthlessofficial.com/

https://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastusa
http://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/shop/index.html

Earthless, Night Parade of 100 Demons (2022)